I’m not officially starting the South Beach Diet until January 4—you know me at all, you know I’m a bit selfish when it comes to food and I’m not about to give up the rest of my time with my mom’s cooking or my time in Boston with the BF.
I fly back to DC late on the 2nd and I need time to prepare before starting. So I’ve given myself the cushion of January 3 so that I can have a “last supper” and get all of my ducks in a row to start hard on the 4th.
I’m not stupid, though. I know if I wait until the morning of the 4th to go completely carb free I’ll likely claw someone’s eyeballs out before the end of first day. You can thank me later for “practicing” until the 4th by eating 75% of my day South Beach friendly. Plenty of room for goodies still!
That means breakfast and lunch SBD friendly and a normal dinner with the fam. To practice, I experimented with a recipe in the SBD book last night!
One of my favorite recipes growing up was “flats.” I think normal people call this Eggs Benedict. I’m not sure why we called them flats, but I do know that the Hollandaise sauce is not any sort of diet friendly with its Mayonaisy goodness.
Thank goodness the SBD book has an alternative! It was actually pretty good.
Here is the adapted recipe:
“Practice” Flats:
Eggs
8 eggs
8 TBS skim milk
pepper
8 slices Canadian Bacon, pan cooked
4 whole wheat English Muffins, toasted
Hollandaise Sauce (adapted from page 136 of the SBD book)
1/2 cup liquid egg substitute
2 TBS margarine
Juice of 1 fresh lemon
2-3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
pepper
To Assemble:
Preheat oven to 325. Lightly spray a muffin tin with Pam. Crack an egg into 8 of the holes and pour a tablespoon of milk into each egg. Sprinkle with pepper. Cook for 10-12 minutes, or until eggs are firm when you shake the pan.
While eggs are cooking, assemble mock Hollandaise sauce: Microwave the liquid egg substitute and margin for 30-45 seconds, or until margarine is mostly melted. Stir in lemon juice and dijon mustard and microwave on low until the sauce is thick and creamy. I would recommend checking on it every 30 seconds—if you notice the sauce starting to curdle (mine did!) just blend until smooth.
Take the toasted english muffin halts and place 1 slice of cooked Canadian Bacon on each one. Top with an egg and cover the tops with Hollandaise Sauce. Enjoy!
Serves 4
We served alongside some roasted broccoli for a great, ALMOST SBD recipe. I will definitely be making this sans English Muffins for a quick weeknight dinner!
